Home: Haripur, Sarlahi, Janakpur

Education: Bachelor of Civil Engineering, Institute of Engineering, Pulchowk

Sanjit grew up in Haripur, Sarlahi, and remembers school as a scary place. Not occasionally — consistently. Teachers could beat students at any time, for any reason, or for no reason at all: a multiplication table asked on a whim, a homework not completed, a mood that arrived in the classroom before the lesson did. Even as the class topper, Sanjit was not exempt from the fear. One teacher stood apart: his Nepali teacher, who simply did not punish, and yet the freedom that created made her one of his favourites. A science teacher got angry when Sanjit asked why gourds plant fruit before they flower, when most flowering plants do the opposite. The question was genuine, but his curiosity got suppressed. Sanjit has not forgotten either of those moments. He went on to complete a Bachelor's in Civil Engineering from Pulchowk. In Nepal, he observes, teaching is rarely anyone's first choice. Teachers themselves will tell you they did not plan to be there. And as long as a government job or a better opportunity exists, many leave. The result, Sanjit believes, is a classroom shaped by people who did not choose it. So, students have to survive classrooms, and not grow. His conviction is simple and far-reaching: for a society to truly change, education must be transformed by good teachers. He was preparing for his teacher's license when he came across a post from a TFN alumna and learned about the Fellowship — two years in government classrooms, in the rural communities he came from. Sanjit joins Teach For Nepal because he has thought carefully about who chooses to teach in this country, and he has decided, with full awareness of what that choice means, to be one of them.